Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation

This is a discussion on Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation within Street Experiences, part of the Buckle Up category; Experienced the dreaded commute to Ecospace and back today, glad to say I came back in one piece and it ...

Experienced the dreaded commute to Ecospace and back today, glad to say I came back in one piece and it wasn't as bad as I thought it could be (was prepared for the worst and had no positive expectations)
Started from Indiranagar around 9:30 am and reached Ecospace around 10:30 am on the scooter.
I was so unfamiliar with the tech parks on ORR that I did not take the Yamalur/Bellandur route nor the shortcut via Tulsi theatre near Marathahalli.
Instead went all the way to Marathahalli-ORR junction and asked a cop for directions - was a bit confused since the turns from the top of the ORR underpass on old airport road had been opened and closed a couple of times earlier, so I wanted to confirm if I need to make a left turn and then a U Turn near Kalamandir. He said 2 wheelers can make a U Turn by going straight ahead on airport road. So went there, found a U Turn sign but the gap in median was barely enough for a 2 wheeler, so confirmed with another cop there that U turn is allowed and then turned.
Turned into service road after the Kadubeesanahlli underpass and reached Ecospace.
Evening, started around 7, took Bellandur/Yamalur route and recahed home in an hour!

One more friend got fined for defective number plate while riding a Vespa scooter. Why? because the number plate was stickered on the vehicle and no metal plate is attached. There is no provision for fixing a number plate in this scooter. The company is permitted to make the vehicle. The dealer is permitted to sell the vehicle. People are not permitted to drive the vehicle
If only our police had some common sense!

Once got away, second time got fined This happened around a month back on the way to office and I was stupid enough to get caught. Basically from my past experience of getting away, as soon as the police stopped me I told him "Gottaytu Bidi(I know why you stopped me)" and because of that they fined me . The officer told me that they were warning people and letting me off but since I already knew what was wrong, they had to fine me. Had I not told so and acted innocent like the first time, they might have let me go with an instruction to change the plate.

Honestly, more than that I was in no mood to rake up an argument with them in the morning and waste my time. Since there were no pending challans against the vehicle(first time that I got a fine in many years) I just paid the 100 rupee fine and left within two minutes. However, regarding the actual legislation I am unsure if it specified that there should be a physical plate. It only defines the size and colour of lettering and background, which my numbering is completely compliant.

When I brought the Dio, there was no provision provided for front number plate. However, later they introduced that from factory and gave the number plate bracket as standard. Not sure what is right and what isnt. When I will find time, I will read the CMVR and carry a copy of me. Since the Dio is not used frequently now, I did not bother to change. My Ninja has plates both at front and rear and I use it more often, for farther distances where presence of cops is damn high. Havent been flagged down by the same cops who stopped my Dio.

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Now imagine what happens when they suddenly launch a campaign on "white and dazzling lights" and owners have to prove that it's company fitted DRL

Yes, I dread the same but however, I am ready to justify telling them that its standard on cars these days and it turns off at night. Hopefully that should work. But so far, so good.

Against any hopes, I posted this on BTP facebook page too. Got an expected reply. A on liner reply saying "it is not a reason to that, kindly follow the rules". I took some seconds time to decipher that. Later I understood that "No provision given by the vehicle manufacturer cannot be a reason to have sticker number plate and we have to find out a way ourselves to have a metal number plate and follow all the rules"

Experienced the dreaded commute to Ecospace and back today, glad to say I came back in one piece and it wasn't as bad as I thought it could be (was prepared for the worst and had no positive expectations)

If you do the route regularly, what you'll find is that there is no pattern. If nothing changes from your end, including the time that you leave home/ office, you may still get stuck for 30 more minutes than what you had today. It the unpredictability that throws people off.

If you do the route regularly, what you'll find is that there is no pattern.

For now, I will not be a regular traveler to Ecospace

I agree with you on the pattern front - there is no real pattern these days.
Even in Indiranagar, there is some drain cleaning and culvert work in progress that has cut off the connections at certain junctions, but luckily there are some alternate roads that one can take, especially if riding a 2 wheeler.

When the who's who from the usually popular and influential personalities from film industry is involved and then the home minister also promises relief, have lesser hopes that the situation can get any better with this:

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The residents of Manyata Residency in Manyata Tech Park, including actor Shivarajkumar, on Tuesday petitioned Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy about the uncontrolled increase in vehicular traffic in their area owing to the growth of the tech park.

After petitioning the Home Minister, the actor alleged that about 1.5 lakh employees were working in the teck park although authorities had initially received permission to engage the services of only 30,000 staff.

He blamed this “violation of norm” for the choking of roads. The residents demanded restrictions on the movement of vehicles. He said the Home Minister had assured them of looking into the issue.

The residents have been protesting against the traffic going through their residential colony, following a restriction at the main gate of Manyata Tech Park, that bans a left turn at Gate 1 for commuters going towards Hebbal. Commuters of the teck park going towards Hebbal had since then started taking the back gate, going through the residential colony, and causing chaos in the colony.

Later, Mr. Reddy told reporters that he would consult Bengaluru City Development Minister K.J. George on the issue. The actor’s wife Geetha Shivarajkumar too was part of the delegation that met the Home Minister.

R. Hitendra, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), said that the Home Minister has assured of a meeting of all stakeholders soon, where a decision on the traffic restrictions will be taken.

In a major setback to residential layouts proclaiming themselves 'gated communities', blocking roads and cutting off access to the general public, the BBMP has categorically stated that roads and parks inside such layouts are "public properties" and, hence, cannot be access-controlled.

In the second section, it also says the registration number has to be displayed in English and Arabic numerals. I am Keen to know how many were penalised for displaying registration numbers in languages other than English and numbers other than in Arabic numerals.

Point #2 looks really interesting. A police force really do not require that data, but if they ask for it that means they have some good reasons for that. I am getting a feeling that, they would use this data to ask back the company - "1. can you alter your work timings 2. Do you really require so much people to use their own two & four wheelers to come to office? 3. Work from home, or why not use more company transport?".

The tech.park which I work at have buses operating to many destinations in the city. But for many people (slightly senior techies to mid level managers), the buses cannot be used because of late evening conference call with the customers. The companies generally are not really bothered on how the folks actually come to work, and "client is god".

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Originally Posted by paragsachania

When the who's who from the usually popular and influential personalities from film industry is involved and then the home minister also promises relief, have lesser hopes that the situation can get any better with this:

You nailed it. The plan which finally comes out would be more cruder, with perhaps lots tasks being dumped on the IT companies in the Tech.Park. The IT Companies would then change their policies and make it better for them, with all problems dumped on the individual employee's heads. The people protesting are "influential", the owners of the tech.park are even more "influential & politically connected". Then who else is there to spare?

A BMTC Volvo bus slightly touched a cab this afternoon at the service road entrance just before Bellandur flyover. Ensuing arguments created a good amount of congestion on the service road as well as on the ORR

BBMP is planning to go ahead with Sarjapur Road widening in spite of opposition from the landowners for compensation in the form of TDR.

Seems highly ambitious- To build with specifications mentioned above, almost all of the establishments right from Iblur all the way till Wipro will mostly have to be fully or partially demolished. That seems to be a tall ask especially since there is a lot of opposition.